So I picked up another boat about a month ago and have been trying to straighten out everything as I go. I noticed that the jib did not have a shackle Hobie #11220000 attaching the sail to the luff wire at tack. There was a pretty good gap, I'd say 1.5-2". I chained together two small shackles that I had laying around and called it good for the time being. I'm looking into it more now, I'd like to set the proper tension so I'm not either A-stretching my jib, or B-sailing with not enough tension on the luff. How do I go about properly tensioning this?

Put the shackle at the top so you can adjust the bottom like a mainsail downhaul without tipping the boat. That's how my 2000 jib is; pretty sure it was made that way because the top shackle was riveted on.

Put the shackle at the top so you can adjust the bottom like a mainsail downhaul without tipping the boat. That's how my 2000 jib is; pretty sure it was made that way because the top shackle was riveted on.

Okay, so I'm guessing it's just a "feel" for how to set the tension? For a middle of the road setting, should I just snug it up and call it good?

Kind of. Mine's disconnected now (shackle broke) so I don't have a reference until I sail next time. I'm just going to take the horizontal wrinkles out, not introduce vertical ones, and see how everything looks as I sail. There are probably people who adjust that for conditions, but I'm not one of them.

Kind of. Mine's disconnected now (shackle broke) so I don't have a reference until I sail next time. I'm just going to take the horizontal wrinkles out, not introduce vertical ones, and see how everything looks as I sail. There are probably people who adjust that for conditions, but I'm not one of them.

Right, I'd also just like to set it and forget it. I'm not racing, so I don't really care that much, just would like it to be set optimally for moderate wind and never have to deal with it again.